Bideford Bound - The Joiners Arms

Several blog posts on the way now from Devon, a county which featured heavily on these pages in 2023.  A county in which I was determined to be able to say I'd visited all of the 2024 Good Beer Guide pubs.
We ticked almost everywhere we needed in the northern reaches of Devon with overnighters the previous year in Barnstaple and Ilfracombe.  But we missed the Joiners Arms in Bideford, whose opening hours didn't work out.
So...let's try again...

You'll find Bideford and its 18,000 or so residents on the Torridge estuary, a 30-minute bus ride from Barnstaple.
The town name is derived from "by the ford", but looking out at the River Torridge it's hard to imagine being able to cross it by ford.  Much better to use the nice old bridge, although the constant flow of traffic across it makes it more of a chore than a pleasure as a pedestrian.

Walk up the steepish hills from the riverside and you'll find narrow lanes, interesting independent shops, and a surprising number of people bustling about this old port town.
After two trips to Bideford I've decided that this is my favourite building...

It's on a corner next to the attractive pannier market - do you get pannier markets anywhere in the UK other than Devon?

On the top right corner of the streets surrounding the market you'll find the Joiners...

The Joiners Arms (6 Market Place, Bideford, EX39 2DR) 
This was a pub doing a good trade for an early Saturday afternoon with folks sat at the bar, most tables occupied.
Three cask ales were available: the common sight of Doom Bar; Young's 'Special' which has traveled a fair way from Bedford; and the local Clearwater offering... 

I grabbed one of the last remaining tables in the  left-side of the bar and enjoyed a reasonable local ESB.  Across the other side of the pub is a small stage, the Joiners playing host to bands with names like the Ragamuffins and Basil's Balls Up Band.
This is a proper community town pub and I suspect it's quite lively and a lot of fun of an evening time with a band on stage.

I needed a bite to eat and figured the local 'Spoons would be the logical quick 'n' easy option.
But I was denied the quality pub picture thanks to Consort Scaffold Services who have hidden the frontage of the Rose Salterne.

The Rose Salterne (9-10 Bridgeland Street, Bideford, RX39 2PZ)
Behind that scaffolding this is a building with a bit of history.  It dates back to 1871 when it was opened as the 'Public Rooms' (what that entails, I'm not sure), then it later became the Palace Cinema.  That closed in 1962 to make way for a supermarket, later branching into furniture, then a carpet store. 
There's an odd covered patio area in a recess from the pavement out front, before you enter through the doors into a familiar 'Spoons layout.  I did like the bell lampshades that you see at the right side of the picture...

The beer selection was unspectacular with Oakham 'JHB' and Exmoor 'Gold' being the only additions to the regular Ruddles, Doom Bar etc range.
Jacket potato and five bean chili for me, although with the amount of chili you get on top of your potato you'll be lucky if you get 5 beans in total, let alone 5 varieties of bean.  Generous portion of salad though, and it filled a gap whilst I watched a consortium of staff trying to fix the coffee machine and pondered to myself whether I'd ever read anything by Charles Kingsley. (Kingsley living in this part of Devon and the pub taking its name from the heroine of his 1855 novel Westward Ho!)

The best shot of the Spoons carpet was on the quite majestic corridor to the WCs...

Time for another pub visit in Bideford?
From a choice of half-a-dozen I picked the Appledore Inn which graced the Beer Guide a couple of years ago.

The Appledore Inn (18 Chingswell Street, Bideford, EX39 2NF)
A few minutes walk from the Wetherspoon's, this mid-terrace pub is on the route to the football ground, so you get AFC Bideford stickers in the window alongside the obligatory Exeter Chiefs ones.

It's open-plan within, although I'd guess there were two separate rooms when it was built in the mid 19th century.  There has obviously been a recent make-over in shades of grey and they've opted for one of those dull hard-wearing carpets - functional rather than welcoming.

On the bar were hand pumps for Dartmoor 'Legend', Butcombe 'Rare Breed' and 'Original', or Morland 'Old Speckled Hen'.  
"Oi - who's drinking my Legend?" said the chap at the end of the bar when I ordered, although I don't think he was getting through the barrel fast enough single-handed to keep it in tip-top condition.

With that, my short visit to Bideford was over.  All that was left was to peer over the wall at the local football ground.  Apparently, AFC Bideford haven't been relegated for over 60 years so may be a better bet for me to support than Forest.

And they have some cracking old-school floodlights.

Chips at the Champ

During our short stay in Ilfracombe we headed out into the nearby North Devon region to visit country inns, rugged beaches and a brewery tap with elusive opening hours.

First up, a brief lunchtime stop for a half-pint in Fremington.

The New Inn (Old School Lane, Fremington, EX31 2NT - web)
We received a great welcome at the New Inn.  The laid-back Labrador came to check us out when we walked through the door into a central hallway.
Then a bit of a first - pub orientation on arrival from the cheery lady behind the bar.
"Have you been here before", she asked, before giving us directions to the games room, lounge, outdoor seating and WCs.

She went on to apologise for the loud music (Tom Petty at a fine volume, I felt), explaining they hadn't been having a party before we arrived, but she had it on loud for a local fella who's a bit deaf.

There was a choice of three ales from Barnstaple brewery GT Ales, from which I picked the award winner amber ale 'Thirst of Many'.
A beer on decent form for what I'd guess would be the first served of the day.  Just a few folk in on a midday visit, although we passed by of an evening time when it looked to be doing a roaring trade.

Moving on, we made the 13-mile trip west to the village of Parkham.

The Bell Inn (Rectory Lane, Parkham, EX39 5PL - web)
This building was previously a forge and two farm workers cottages prior to becoming an inn.  
We're lucky it's here at all - it suffered a devastating fire in 2017 which took over 80 firefighters 3 days to extinguish.  The restoration has done a good job to retain a trad country inn charm.

The long front room had larger tables intended for diners of a lunchtime, whilst the bar was in another section to the back.   Two of the four handpumps were in action, serving Ringwood 'Razorback' or Dartmoor 'Legend', as well as local ciders being on offer.

We settled down to enjoy some superb food - the best pub lunch we had in Devon.
Topped off with the "famous" butterscotch meringue ...

Mmmmm...

Leaving Parkham we set the SatNav to take us to the coast, marveling at the route it picked  which seemed to avoid main roads of any description.  This was an excursion into narrow hedge-lined Devon country lanes with passing places, potholes and occasional grass up the middle.

Our destination was Welcombe, right on the north-western edge of Devon, a mile from the Cornish border.

Wikipedia informs me that it has a population of 189 folks and "has a beach called Welcombe Mouth, which is a challenge to get to.^{[citation needed]} ".  
Hey, they can reference this blog for that citation needed.
Welcombe Mouth is a challenge to get to.

The walking route from the village may not be too tough, but by car the National Trust signposted narrow lane turns into a rollercoaster bump-fest of a rocky track.

Not a bad spot when you get there though...

One mile inland, in the spread-out village of Welcombe, is the pub...

The Old Smithy Inn (Welcombe, EX39 6HG - web)
Which disappointed me a bit.
From an empty car park the pub sits in a dip beyond a beer garden on two levels.  A final set of steps leads to the thatched porch where we were glad to see the door open, the lack of customers making us wonder if we'd misread the opening hours.
This was supposed to be holiday season - where was everyone?

Two ales on the bar - Dark Star 'Hophead' or Dartmoor 'Jail Ale'.
I took a so-so Jail Ale to the garden bench then, was back inside in no time at all - scuppered by a downpour from out of nowhere.

One of the highlights of our travels around this area was an evening visit to Appledore.
On the western bank of the Torridge estuary, this village was bustling with tourists strolling along the waterfront, tucking into chips, and sitting in the sunshine on the benches outside the Seagate Hotel.

Looking across the water, the sandy beaches opposite belong to Instowe, where we'd find ourselves another evening drinking Sams cider in the Quay Inn.
But for the time being, we were looking for the Champ.

The Champ (Meeting Street, EX39 1RJ - web)
This is a lovely little pub, tucked up a side street from the quay.
It's a wet-led pub, offering the chance for customers to bring in their own food.  And as it's two doors away from the chip shop you can pretty much guarantee what type of food customers will be bringing in.

Mrs PropUptheBar headed out to procure chips, leaving me to take the quality interior pub pictures...

The Champ is the tap for the Clearwater Brewery, with their 'Eric's ESB' and 'Honey Beer' available on our visit.  I'd tried the ESB elsewhere (Weare Giffard Cyder Presse, to be precise), so picked the Honey Beer here, forgetting I'd had enough honey beer for a lifetime drinking Waggle Dance in the 00's.

I only wish we'd been staying closer and had been able to stay into the evening.  The rear section of the pub was set up ready for live music, and I bet it's a blast when the place is busy and in full swing.

There was a queue down the street for Sylvester's fish and chips by the time we left... 

Let me end the post with a brewery tap.
But not of the shiny, modern, industrial estate variety.

Yelland Manor Brewery Tap Room is open 7pm to 9ish, and is pretty secretive about which nights of the week that might happen.
So, get it in the Beer Guide, I say!

Yelland Manor Brewery Taproom (Yelland, EX31 3EN)
Yelland village is half-way between Bideford and Barnstaple, overlooking the Taw River.
There was no obvious signposting for the brewery from the main road, Mrs PropUptheBar (this was her idea) navigating down someones driveway, before we corrected ourselves onto a track leading to a campsite and stables.

Opened in 2013, the brewery is a 5-barrel plant in a converted milking parlour.  Being off the beaten track, it seems to exist mainly to serve the campsite.

Just the one ale is produced, the recipe for this being changed on a regular basis.
And I'd say a fair bit of it is consumed by the chap in charge, who was on his second pint before I'd had more than a couple of sips.

Lovely beer, though.  In one of the strangest brewery tap rooms I've encountered.

And with that, it's probably about time for a change in the blog from the dominant Devon pubs.
I'll leave the South West to the tourists wondering what's happened to the English summer, whilst I cover the thrills(?) of pub visits to Bucks, Berkshire brewery taps, and non-league football in the next few posts.

Ilfracombe Pub Explorations

Our summer pub ticking in Devon finally reaches the north coast where we made Ilfracombe our base for a couple of nights.

I have a feeling it's always rained when I've visited Ilfracombe previously so it was nice to be treated to a bit of sunshine.  At least until the torrential downpours on our final night - the night that Mrs PropUptheBar decided to put my shoes outside to 'freshen up'.

We ambled up Capstone Hill, visited the chapel above the harbour which doubles as a lighthouse (reputedly the oldest lighthouse in the country), and tried to make our minds up if we actually liked the Damien Hirst statue.

Handily on the main route from our B&B to the Harbour was a pub on my radar - the Hip & Pistol: a one-time beer guide entrant, listed as selling Bass on WhatPub.
But, on approach we found it had been renamed 'The Hip @No8'.
Looking more like a bistro than a proper pub.
And surely not a very likely source of Bass.

Hip & Pistol (8 St Jame's Place, Ilfracombe, EX34 9BH)
And so it wasn't - a summery-looking creation called 'Islander' from Exmoor Brewery being the sole cask.
"What's that other one with the turned-around pump clip?", I asked after my beer had been poured.  Which opened me up to an explanation that clips turned around meant the beer was off at the moment.
But then..."It's Bass - it'll be back on tomorrow".

The Exmoor Islander was, incidentally, a fine pint on good form, enjoyed on the patio on a warm evening.

But of course we went back the next day...

It was an odd place, the Hip.  Funkily modern, with enormous TV screens and all manner of quirky decorations.  Attracting a real mix of customers, from the bar-blocking locals to returning holidaymakers proclaiming "they've changed it's name".

And to complement the Bass, there's even a bit of mild smut in the gents...

Dangerous curves ahead...

Second Stage (Wilder Road, Ilfracombe, EX34 9AJ)
The danger ahead turned out to be a skittles alley slap-bang in the middle of a pub - something I've never come across before.
"Take two steps closer," ordered the chap behind the bar.
That's nice of him, offering us to take a closer look at the pump clips.
Nope.  "You're standing on the alley and you'll soon know about it if one of them balls hits you".

Parked cars getting in the way of my pub picture, again

The pub takes its name from being across the road from the Landmark Theatre - the one that looks like a mini old school power station on the seafront.
We took our glasses of GT Ales 'Blonde Ambition' to a table tucked next to the bar, safely out of the way of the skittles and pool players.

The Second Stage was the one of two Ilfracombe pubs listed in the Good Beer Guide.
The other one involved a trek away from the seafront onto the main shopping street.
The no-nonsense signage gives it away as Cask Union.

The Wellington (66-67 High Street, Ilfracombe, EX34 9QE)
This was originally two neigbouring pubs, now combined into one.  Through the front door, the right-hand side looked a cosier option, but was taken up by the pub quiz.  Heading left we were in the main bar, with a pool room up a couple of stairs to the back.

Doom Bar, Wadworth '6X', or Coombe Brewing Co 'Beach Blonde' were the cask ales on offer.  Good value at £4.80 for a pint and a half of the local brew. 
Not a bad beer, despite the long time it took to pour ("It's a lively one").  We had the motorcycle racing to watch on a TV behind the bar as we waited - you were never far from some sort of sport on TV in the Wellington.

Whilst it was a card game keeping the folks entertained at the next table.

The George & Dragon, back near the harbour, is said to date back to 1360 and I do like to visit the oldest pub in town.

George & Dragon (4 Fore Street, EX34 9EB)
It was here, many years ago, that I ordered a pint and a Bailey's, the Bailey's causing much puzzlement to the young Spanish bar staff.  They conferred in whispers before proceeding to pour the Irish cream into a half-pint glass.  I think we stopped them before it reached the top but it was still more Bailey's than anyone sensibly needs. 

I'd guess it was the landlady who served us this time, chatting to a group of regulars, and looking like she knew what measure and type of glass to serve all drinks in. 
An Exmoor 'Gold' for me, with Sharps 'Sea Fury' being the alternative.

The George and Dragon was a pleasant place, with grand wooden beams and the feel of an unspoilt old pub, although calling in as they were winding down for the evening meant it wasn't a very exciting visit.

Just for good measure, we made an end-of-the-evening trip to the town's Wetherspoon's, the Admiral Collingwood (Wilder Road, Ilfracombe, EX34 9AR).
Where I discovered that I really didn't need a pint of 7% perry from a box in the fridge as a nightcap.

Photographed in the daytime - purpose-built and picking up an award at the National Pub Design Awards in 2015. 

On The Road to the Bell at Chittlehampton

The road being the A377, which winds its way from Exeter to Barnstaple.  Along this route I called in a several towns and villages, all coincidentally beginning with 'C'.
And featuring vintage fruit machines, finials on thatched roofs, and collections of Good Beer Guides on staircases.

First stop: Crediton
An historic market town built around the wool trade and supposedly the birthplace of Saint Boniface.  I always figure it's quite a similar place to Honiton in east Devon, but more consistent with Beer Guide entries and without a bypass to save the central street from being constantly clogged with traffic.
I'd mainly come to admire the Derby County approved door knockers...  

And to visit the Duke of York which has been the sole Beer Guide entry for the past couple of years.

Duke of York (74 High Street, Crediton, EX17 3JX)
Built in the early 19th century, the Duke of York has a pleasingly simple frontage with coaching arch to one side.  Entry is via the archway into a single room surrounding the bar.
Dart board at the rear, sport on TV, locals on the stools at the bar, an old boy doing the crossword and scowling at me every now and again.  Or perhaps he's just looking into space and trying to conjure up the answers...who can tell.

Just the one ale on offer when I visited which made picking the Dartmoor 'IPA' very easy.
You drink a lot of Dartmoor IPA and Jail Ale when exploring Devon pubs.
But I do have to commend the Duke of York on their beer as it was on really good form here.

I figured I'd pop into the Crediton Inn which seems to be the go-to real ale pub in the town despite having disappeared from the Guide for a while.

Crediton Inn (28 Mill Street, Crediton, EX17 1EZ)
I liked the Crediton Inn - a good no-nonsense wet-led pub - but the locals weren't out in force when I called in.  Just two other punters in besides myself.

So credit to the music selection which provided something to occupy myself with, Shazaming tracks whilst sinking into a sofa with my 'Thirsty Blonde'.

A quick check shows we were listening to Midival Punditz and Roy Ayers Ubiquity, which certainly isn't your average pub soundtrack..

17 miles North-West of Crediton is the Saxon hilltop market town of Chulmleigh.  Home to just over 1,000 folks, none of whom were anywhere to be seen when we rocked up to eerily quite mid-afternoon streets.
At least there were a few people in the pub.

The Old Court House (South Moulton Street, Chulmleigh, EX18 7BW - web)
"Afternoon!  How's your day going?" was the cheery welcome we received from the chap behind the bar.
"Oi.  You never ask me that", complained one of the locals.
"That's because he can tell by the miserable face you always walk in with - he don't need to ask!" came the retort from his drinking buddy.

"Are you on holiday, or are you lost?" the barman asked us.
It did occur the two are very definitely not mutually exclusive.

Having mumbled something about getting around as many Devon beer guide pubs as possible, I had the choice of a Butcombe 'Original' or Dartmoor 'IPA'.
More Dartmoor for me, not bad, but not as good as I remember that pint in Crediton being. 

You don't get any of those hi-tech complicated fruit machines with too many flashing lights here.  The one-armed bandit may possibly date back to when Charles 1 stayed in Chulmleigh in 1634 and gave the pub its name.  

Retro gaming

Six miles further north we found ourselves in the small village of Chittlehamholt.
Wiki tells me it has a population of 169 people, 26 listed buildings, 2 bridges, and 1 pub.

The Exeter Inn (Chittlehamholt, EX37 9NS - web)
This old 16th century coaching inn was looking good on a sunny afternoon.  I'm no expert on thatched roofs but even those pesky animals that have clambered on top of this one can't spoil how immaculate it looks.

The Exeter Inn was a place with plenty of character: hops hanging from the ceiling, old pictures of the village on the walls and a couple of great seats that folks had beaten me to next to the fireplace with an old bread oven.
But most of the indoor tables were ready for diners and I'd have been worried about messing the place settings by commandeering one for a drink only.  So we headed onto the terrace outside where every passing car seemed to slow down and wave to someone they knew.

Retro cash registering

Nuttycombe 'Doonicans', brewed up in Taunton, was the lesser seen cask option on the bar, with other hand pumps serving up Otter and St Austell.
A nice beer, enjoyed in the sunshine, before I popped inside and discovered another vintage fruit machine.

Just 3 more miles up the road was Chittlehampton which sits on a high ridge, St Hieritha's church standing out spectacularly as you make your approach from the south.  Wikipedia tells us that there is something special about the church bells which campanologists come from far and wide to ring.
But I suspect that's just an excuse for them to visit the Bell Inn...

The Bell Inn (The Square, Chittlehampton, EX37 9QL - web)
This is a pub I loved from the moment I stepped through the door.  The lobby has a tiled floor, there are old pump clips stuck to the walls, and there's a collection of Good Beer Guides randomly stacked on the staircase.

 

The village local has been run by the same family since 1975 and has been adorned with various awards from North Devon CAMRA whilst appearing in the beer guide continuously since 1997.
It's wonderful inside: spacious with several different areas, although all attention is initially diverted to the animal heads protruding from the wall above the bar.

Available cask ales were Butcombe 'Original', Otter 'Bitter', and Exmoor 'Ale'.  We weren't far from Exmoor, so that was my choice, although the boxed cider options were mighty tempting too.
As well as the seating in the front of the pub there is a games room on a lower level and a rear extension with plenty of interesting decorations.

And beyond this a splendidly situated garden where the views were good enough to make me forgive the astro-turf.

With those pubs in Crediton, Chulmleigh and the Chittles ticked, I'd made a nice bit of mid-Devon progress with the Beer Guide chapter.  Although I have to concede that I'm going to run out of time and fail my mission to complete it this summer.
Never mind - that won't stop me heading to Ilfracombe, which I'll write about in the next post.